Kyōsōkyoku
by The Virtuous Seraph
Summary: Music is the language of the soul. Music is how feelings sound. Music is love in search of a word...all you have to do is hit the right notes at the right times, and the music plays itself.   First Fic, please be kind.   Profound apologies for delays . .
1. Key Signature

DISCLAIMER - I claim no ownership of Naruto or of the Naruto storyline, including characters. Any original characters in this story are my intellectual property, and their use outside this fanfiction can be negotiated. This story is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real-world people or events is both unintentional and coincidental, though the story itself will be set as deeply in reality as possible, including, but not limited to names, places, and concepts.

With that, please enjoy.

* * *

"…wait…almost…got it…"

"Don't be an idiot! What makes you think that this is going to end well?"

"I said I almost have it!"

"You're gonna fall."

"I'm NOT gonna fall, teme! Just be ready to catch it when I knock it off."

"…You're gonna fall."

"Would you shut your face and—whoa…whoa whoa WHOA NONONONONOOOOOAAAUUGH—"

*crash* *crack*

"…and now you're unconscious. I'm leaving before anyone gets here."

"I told him this wouldn't end well. Baka."

∞ 曲 ∞

白光間私立高校 - Hakkoukan Private High School

Hakkoukan Private High School was not your average high school.

Hakkoukan Private High School wasn't even your average private high school.

Hakkoukan Private High School was absolutely ridiculously extravagant.

The campus was the size of New York's Central Park and somehow hidden somewhere in Touhoku (possibly near Kitakami, but no one knew for sure except faculty, Staff, Students, and the Japanese Government). It wasn't technically a boarding school, but the sheer size and obscurity of location meant that large dormitory complexes had been built at different places on campus. The campus itself was extremely well cared for by a full-time grounds-keeping regiment, the technology was all cutting-edge and constantly upgraded, and every department, from music to athletics, was supplied with only the best tools. There was one helipad at each end of the school, and the school had its own licensed air traffic controller. Even the weather seemed precisely controlled. Hakkoukan Private High School was, in essence, the gated (seeming sometimes to be more hermetically sealed than gated) learning community that was accessible only to young adults who were the elite of the elite, the very top of the highest social classes. The brilliant sons and daughters of the owners of massive corporation conglomerates, stock-market investors, foreign royalty and diplomats, and other similar positions in the world were the only people who were accepted into the Hakkoukan community, mainly because they were the only people wealthy enough to apply for enrolment.

All, of course, except for one particular young man, whose father was a commander in the JSDF's Middle Army who had died saving the bulk of the faculty from a suicide bomber who had been on their plane. This young man was accepted into Hakkoukan Private High School out of respect for his father, but was not particularly wealthy or high-class. In fact…he was a regular seventeen-year-old guy…though even by normal standards, he was a bit weird. And at Hakkoukan High, normally weird was absolutely bizarre.

Now, he didn't hate the world. In fact, he had absolutely no problem with the world at large, and he made every attempt to get along with the people around him. However, the world seemed to hate him all the same. Ever since his father died, everyone – except his aunt, his uncle, and a select few people—was against him. And he knew why.

He was different.

He'd tried for the better part of his seventeen years to convince the world otherwise. He'd tried dyeing his bright yellow hair, but it always faded, and the chemicals irritated his skin, and the dye always faded quickly. He'd tried wearing colour contacts to hide his piercing azure eyes, but he could never get the hang of putting them in, and an accident in which one lens had to be surgically removed from his eye ultimately put an end to it. All in all, he'd given up trying to fit in during his last year of junior high school. Instead, he made it his personal mission to be as different as was humanly possible. This, conveniently for him, meant little more than being himself. Inconveniently for him, however, this put him at odds with most of the faculty and students. Luckily it was of little consequence since his grades were exceptionally high, and once he entered Hakkoukan, he was no longer the only foreign-looking person in school. Nevertheless, his flamboyant style and rather loud personality made him very notorious among the student body. Within the Hakkoukan community, he was widely recognised as "that guy."

But to him, none of that was of any consequence, because he'd been charged with cleaning one of the two music rooms because of an earlier incident which involved a stack of chairs, a triangle, a length of string, the flag of Japan, and a mop (better not to ask). Suffice it to say that he had a length of bandage wrapped around his head, and that he was not pleased.

"…Man, why does our orchestra have to be so…huge?" he asked himself aloud as he looked out at the sea of over 100 chairs, the floor under which he had to clean (without a mop, since the mop had broken).

"…well this sucks. Might as well get it done and go home." He said after a few moments' consideration. He put on his headphones, set his MP3 player to shuffle, and started to move the chairs, all the while either singing the song he was listening to, or grumbling about his task.

-SOME MINUTES LATER-

"UGH, that was DISGUSTING." he shouted to himself, having just cleaned the section of the floor onto which the brass section evacuated the spit from their instruments. Luckily, he had saved that job for last, and now had only to replace the chairs. Before he could start, however, he heard through the soundproofed walls the extremely faint sound of someone in the adjacent music room playing a bass cello.

He _loved_ the sound of low instruments.

He ran to the wall and put his ear to it in an attempt to hear more clearly, but it had little effect.

"Oh man, I gotta check this out." he said to himself simply as he walked out the door and headed toward the other music room, He quietly opened the door and walked in.

He was not expecting what he saw.

The person behind the instrument was a girl with very long black hair who was wearing the school's winter uniform, which he found odd since it was the middle of summer. Still, he was definitely intrigued, and after a minute or so of listening at the door, she had finished. When she had, he walked over and made his presence known, giving the girl a smile that could only be described as 'that big, stupid grin'.

"Hey, do you play in the orchestra? Because if you're not, you def-"

He was cut off when the girl, still holding the instrument, whirled around to face him. Her grey, almost white eyes were wide with shock, and the only thing she responded with was a surprised kind of squeak before she ran in the other direction, still holding the bow.

"Hey, wait up!" he shouted after her, almost starting to go, but stopping when he realised that she had left the bass cello standing, and that he was too far away from it to stop it from falling over. He cringed in anticipation…and the noise it made when it hit the floor was absolutely terrible. When he finally opened his eyes to witness the damage, he could only think of two things:

_'Who was that girl?' _

and

_'Uzumaki Naruto, you are gonna get SO blamed for this.'_


	2. Anacrusis

DISCLAIMER - I claim no ownership of Naruto or of the Naruto storyline, including characters. Any original characters in this story are my intellectual property, and their use outside this fanfiction can be negotiated. This story is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real-world people or events is both unintentional and coincidental. Thank you, and enjoy.

* * *

_Snapping out of his thoughts about the girl, Naruto walked over to the bass cello on the ground._

_It had fallen on its front. The bridge was broken, the top was cracked, and there was a fairly large chip missing from the scroll. The damage was very noticeable, and it would have to be repaired or replaced._

"…_my life is over," Naruto said to himself, completely horrified. "Masuda-sensei is gonna kill me."_

_He looked at the damage a bit more, but deemed hiding it or fixing it a lost cause, and picked up the broken instrument and its pieces and set them on a table before turning out the lights and leaving._

∞ 曲 ∞

-Next day, Hakkoukan Private High School, Music Director's Office-

The sign on the desk read "Director of Musical Studies, Masuda Toshio."  
The man behind the desk was in his early fifties, with a grey beard, short hair, and fairly plain glasses,  
and at the moment, he was rubbing his eyes with one hand and tapping the desk with the fingers of the other.

"…so what you're telling me," he started, eyes still closed, "is that while you were cleaning, a female student was playing this instrument, and she dropped it and ran when you came to investigate?"

"Exactly!" Naruto responded passionately. "I was minding my own business, cleaning the rooms, and then _that_ happened!"

Masuda-sensei sighed, and leaned on his desk to look more closely at Naruto. "Let me tell you exactly why I don't believe you. First of all, the only people who were in the music building after hours were you and the custodial staff. Second, you said that the person playing the instrument was, in fact, a girl. Now, in no way am I implying that our female students _shouldn't _play the bass for any reason, but the Hakkoukan Orchestra simply doesn't _have _any female bassists."

"But--!" Naruto started to argue, but as much as he hated to admit it, Masuda-sensei was right. There really weren't any girls who played bass at Hakkoukan, and the only thing she remembered about the girl from yesterday was that she had long black hair, and that narrowed his choices down to about 65% of the student body. It also didn't help that he was often at odds with Masuda-sensei about music.

"...you know, it doesn't even matter. I've told you the truth, but it's like you said, you don't believe me, so there's no reason to say anything. I think we're done here." he said, picking up his things and standing.

"So be it..." Masuda-sensei continued, leaning back in his chair. "As you know, the Hakkoukan Orchestra will be having its spring concert tomorrow night. As a result of these recent events..." he went on, pausing as Naruto got to the door.

"...You will not be performing."

Naruto whirled around to face the Music Director, obviously quite enraged. "WHAT!? You can't--!"

Masuda-sensei cut him off, picking up a stack of papers and organizing them. "It's as you said, Uzumaki-kun. We are done here. The Orchestra can do without one of its violinists for a night."

Naruto was speechless with rage, and he would have exploded, but he knew that since the school was keeping him out of courtesy (and for no charge), despite the fact that his grades were high, they could expel him at any time...and he had to be especially careful since he wasn't the teachers' favourite student.

"...Fine." he said quietly, walking out the door, closing it firmly, without slamming it, behind him.

∞ 曲 ∞

-Hakkoukan High School Campus-

The Orchestra's music period was the last one of any member's day, since their practices carried on into designated "After-School Activities" time. However, since Naruto had just been removed from the practice for the performance tomorrow night, he decided to do what he did best to relieve his anger - he played music. He often isolated himself in the back corner of one of the groves of cherry blossom trees that were scattered among the school.

He was so lost in the sound of music that he didn't notice a certain female student watching him, hiding as best she could in the trees so bright with pastel pink petals that they seemed to illuminate the shadows they cast. Neither student had any after-school obligations, so the girl was taking her time watching the boy take his time, drifting between watching the boy dreamily and daydreaming about the boy. It just so happened that when she had lost herself in a particularly good daydream, something hit her foot lightly. She fell back into reality, looked down, and picked up a small chunk of an amber-coloured substance with a peculiar strip worn out of the middle.

"...Bow rosin..." she said to herself quietly, examining the translucent stone for a few moments before realising the implications of what she now held.

But she was too late. Naruto had followed it around the tree behind which she was hiding, and was now looking directly at her.

"Hey, my rosin. Thanks...for...."

His sentence trailed of once he noticed that the girl had the same grey eyes - and the terrified expression to go with them - as the one from yesterday.

"...Hey, I know you. You're that girl. You ran off before--"

He never finished. The girl dropped the rosin, spun around, and ran off, almost hitting three trees as she went.

"Hey, wait up!!" Naruto called after her, but to no avail. He sighed, shook his head, and picked up his rosin.

"Man, am I really that scary? Maybe it's the hair..." he said to himself, about to walk back to his bag, but noticing that the girl had dropped her student ID book.

"Oh....can't leave these things on the ground." he said, once again to himself, as he picked up the small booklet and opened it.

_'...So her name is Hinata...Hyuuga Hinata...'_


	3. MajorMinor

Profuse apologies for the time it took to get this update out. You go to Japan for a week, and you come back and find out that your cat knocked your laptop over and that it has to be sent in for repair, and then you go to look for your hard-copes only to find that they've gone completely missing so you can't even sit and type it back out on a different machine. And yes, if you're wondering, Japan was awesome. Definitely somewhere I could live.

At any rate, I don't own Naruto in any way, shape, form, or fashion. I DO own any original characters, as well as this story.

Any similarity to real-life events or situations is strictly coincidental. Either way, I do hope you enjoy it.

* * *

_She ran away. Before she had a chance to let herself think about it, she had started to run, and she couldn't stop herself now that she had started…so she ran. She wasn't running away from __**him**__...more like __**away**__ from him. Indeed, she had spent a great deal of time watching him from afar, smiling whenever he laughed, crying whenever he cried, always wanting to get close the distance, but she was never able to gather enough willpower to make her presence known. Before she knew it, she was closing the door to her dorm. She stared out into space for a few moments as she caught her breath, before leaning on the door and sliding down. As she sat on the floor, she brought her knees up to her chest, put her head down, and sat there, breaking the silence of the room with a single word._

"…_.coward."_

∞ 曲 ∞

Naruto packed up his violin and bow rosin.

"Man…I know I'm pretty different-looking, but I thought my scaring-everybody-off phase was over," Naruto said to himself as he pondered the meaning behind the girl _twice_ running away from him before he could finish a sentence.

'And,' he thought, 'We're in the same year of school…why am I only noticing her now?'

Instead of thinking too hard about it, he decided to take a nap under the trees. He set his violin aside, flopped down on his back onto the grass and let out a heavy sigh, both because he was comfortable on the grass and because he was worried that he had started to scare people again. While he was lying down, he began to fidget with the ID booklet she had dropped.

"…Hyuuga…Hinata…" he said to himself, thinking about it for a bit, and then laughing to himself.

"And I always thought I was the only one with a punny name."

He stretched out and relaxed, putting the ID booklet back into his pocket. He could have started to actually doze off, but after a few seconds he heard footsteps approaching. As they stopped next to him, he opened his eyes and saw a very stern-looking black-haired boy looking down at him.

"…I can't see the trees through your head, _Teme._ Also, I can see up your nose."

A moment passed, and the boy responded.

"What are you, five? _Baka._ Now get up. We have work to do, and you know you have to 'maintain academic excellence.'"

"Yeah, yeah…" Naruto said grudgingly as he slowly stood and gathered his things.

"Alright. Let's head home."

∞ 曲 ∞

When looking at the Hakkoukan campus, the academic institution itself takes up a relatively small area. The real reason that the campus is so vast is because of the surrounding town. The Hakkoukan campus is a lot like a college town (the school itself being academically superior to some universities), and one can find everything in the area around Hakkoukan that one would find in a regular town. Everything was managed by adults but run and maintained by students working to help fund their Hakkoukan education, which in turn helped Hakkoukan fund itself. While most students did indeed work for their education, the exceptionally wealthy (or the exceptionally lucky) did not.

Uchiha Sasuke was the former.

The Uchiha family business started one summer in the 1800s with a small house with a few people in it who made hand fans with interesting art on them. 200 years later, the Uchiha family controlled one of the largest business conglomerates in the world, and Uchiha Sasuke was the sole heir to the family trade….and the family fortune. He was smart, athletic, handsome, mysterious, and to top it all off, he was a cellist. And the ladies absolutely loved him for it.

…Sasuke on the other hand just though that all the fan-girls were irritating, and wished that they would shut up and go away.

The two walked toward the front gate of the school, where Sasuke's car was parked.

"Aww, you came to pick me up? How sweet." Naruto said in a sarcastically sweet voice.

"Shut it, _Baka._ I left my notes in Mitarashi-sensei's class and I came to pick them up. I was _going_ to leave, but I saw a girl running for her life out of the trees, and I went to see what happened." Sasuke explained dismissively.

"Going to find out what made a poor girl cry? Sasuke, I had no idea you were such a _gentleman_." Naruto responded immediately, in the kind of voice a fan-girl would have when talking about their object of obsession.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "_Baka."_

"_Teme."_

After a minute or so of walking, Sasuke broke the silence. "….So?"

"Huh?"

"The girl," Sasuke continued. "Who was she?"

"OH!" Naruto said loudly, re-railing his train of thought. "That was….uhh….Hyuuga-san! Hyuuga Hinata!"

"….And you know this….how, exactly?" Sasuke asked, clearly suspicious.

"Well, she dropped this." Naruto said as he went through his pockets and eventually pulled out the ID Booklet. "I was going to give it to her after my nap."

"…And did you think I was going to give you a ride all the way to the girls' dorm houses or something?" Sasuke asked as they both approached Sasuke's very shiny, very black, and very expensive-looking car.

"Aww, does that mean you won't!" Naruto asked loudly and with a lot of disappointment.

Sasuke didn't bother answering. He just opened the car doors and got in, and Naruto followed him, muttering under his breath as he did so. The car started, and the two drove off.

After another minute or so of silence, Naruto took his turn to strike up a conversation. "…Do you know anything about that girl?"

"About Hyuuga-san?" Sasuke started, taking a moment to think. "Hmmm….Well, the Hyuuga family is one of the biggest outside contributors to the Hakkoukan Fine Arts Department since the school was founded. The family itself has roots that go so far back that the entire lineage might as well be a national monument."

"Whoooaaaa, that's pretty extreme." Naruto said, fascinated.

"Yeah, they're…..traditional. Traditional and conservative. _Very_ conservative." Sasuke said, emphatically pointing out the last part.

"Probably why she freaks every time we're in the same room…" Naruto said, mostly to himself, but definitely loud enough for Sasuke to hear from the other side of the car.

"Yeah, you _are _pretty different_._" Sasuke said in agreement, which affected a loud "HEY!" from Naruto, to which Sasuke simply chuckled.

Naruto moved things right along. "How do you know all this stuff anyway?"

"The Uchiha and Hyuuga families have both been around for a long time, so it's natural that we have some connections" Sasuke explained. "The Hyuuga family gets a lot of invites to things like arts shows that Uchiha sponsors. I've seen Hinata-san at a few of them, actually. We've never really talked too much though, she's definitely a wallflower."

"….You know, rich and important people confuse the hell out of me." Naruto said after taking a few seconds to let it all sink in.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows ever so slightly. "Really?"

"Believe it." Naruto responded, crossing his arms. "I could never be a stuck-up filthy-rich person who goes to parties and acts all polite. There too much…." He trailed off, but uncrossed his arms and started gesturing with his hands as if he were summoning the words from his mind.

"….Too much to think about?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah." Naruto said as he flopped his hands down onto his lap.

"I can see why that would be hard for you." Sasuke said as he pulled into the driveway of the two-car garage of their particular dorm-house.

"HEY!"


	4. o hai :D

I don't think TOO many people read this story, but for the few of you who do, I TOTALLY STILL EXIST.

"Then where the hell," you may ask, "is the rest of your story? D: " And you'd be totally justified.

And I do have an answer for that question.

So, it turns out that school is this ABSOLUTE TIME SINK that constantly eats up your free minutes. Like...all the time.

But the story must go on, and I am still totally gonna finish it. I have motivation and vision and everything.

Somehow, I've still managed to write the next two chapters (albeit on IRL paper, which is inconvenient).

I will upload them as soon as I get time to sit down and type them out, which I should in some non-ridiculous amount of time.

Thank you, I love you all, and I will try to fulfill my authorial responsibilities as best I can.

∞ The Virtuous Seraph ∞


	5. Cadenza

So I'm terrible. I know. I said non-ridiculous amounts of time, and then I started, and then I just kinda stopped.  
Not writer's block, just...stop. And I feel bad, because I've gotten reviews, which means people are reading this.  
I dunno, I guess I just haven't been quite in-gear as far as writing goes...for a long time...  
BUT, the show does indeed go on, and if you're willing to forgive me for my neglect, I do have more for you.

Of course, Naruto and all characters originating therein are property of Kishimoto Masashi. I claim no ownership of them.  
Original characters (what little you've yet seen of them :3) are mine, but you might be able to borrow them if you ask nicely.

* * *

_The bell rang once again, and the students in the classroom quickly began to put away their notebooks, laptops, and other various study materials. From the front of the classroom, Mitarashi-sensei spoke up. _

_"Heads up, boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating! Remember, your next test is in three days, so study! If you fail, your papers are gonna come back with so much red ink you'll have to submit them as evidence!"_

_As the students filed out, they responded with a lethargic "Haaaaaaai."_

_Mitarashi-sensei chuckled and went back to her desk, taking a box of Mitarashi Dango*__ and a can of Shiruko**__ out of one of the drawers and proceeding to very enthusiastically eat, stopping for a moment to put her feet up on her desk, lean back, and contemplate the deliciousness of her snack._

"_Mmmm…Nothing beats Dango and Shiruko after a long day of work."_

∞ 曲 ∞

-Mid-Afternoon, Hakkoukan Private High School, East Wing-

"Who let that woman become a teacher_?_" Naruto asked loudly once he and Sasuke had walked a bit down the hall.

"She's not a terrible teacher, you know." Sasuke said, looking around apathetically, feeling the unmistakable sensation of being watched by a bunch of girls…and they were definitely watching.

"Uh, she _throws books at people!_" Naruto said, his enthusiasm getting him nothing but looks of disapproval from the same girls that were watching Sasuke. "A psycho shouldn't be allowed to teach, ESPECIALLY not Psychology. Just sayin'. "

In fact, as Naruto and Sasuke walked down the hall and out into the vast courtyard, the sight of the boisterous, unruly weirdo that was Uzumaki Naruto walking next to the reserved, mysterious "prince" (as many would indeed call him) that was Uchiha Sasuke made people very, very confused. And they were not quiet about it. As they walked through the courtyard, people whispered very audibly amongst themselves what they thought.

"_Why would Uchiha-san associate with that deviant?"_

"_Isn't he just following Uchiha-san around?"_

"_He's going to end up pulling Uchiha-san down with him."_

"_People like him are lowering the standard of this school."_

Naruto heard all of it. And he couldn't care less.

There was, of course, a time when he did care. There was a time when the students of Hakkoukan Private High School completely dissociated themselves from him and left him alone, and during that time he acted outwardly to get attention, doing things like climbing to high places, vandalizing the founder's statue in the center of the school, and other things that made people pay attention. There was also a time when he took the unyielding barrage of quiet yet powerful disapproval to heart, and began to blame himself for the fact that he was different but couldn't change who he was, and during that time he acted inwardly, taking it out on himself. And he had the scars to prove it, though no one had ever cared to ask how he got the scars on his face, and they hadn't seen any others.

But that was a different time. Now, Uzumaki Naruto was simply Uzumaki Naruto. He accepted himself, and he accepted the fact that other people _didn't. _And as he walked toward the other end of the courtyard beside Sasuke hearing the whispers of those around him, he couldn't care less about them. The people he could call "friend" were few, but he knew that those few were indeed his friends, and they were really all he needed to survive.

Coincidentally, as they rounded a long planter and neared one of the school's many mini-cafés, he spotted another one of his friends. Someone both he and Sasuke knew rather well.

…Someone pink.

"SAKURA!" Naruto called out to her, leaving the ever-nonchalant Sasuke behind as he ran over to her.

Haruno Sakura, member of the Hakkoukan Judo club, and the only daughter of the Haruno family, whose claim to fame was the production of high-end pharmaceuticals and medical products. The Haruno family itself was not especially old or far-reaching, but their production operations had recently come under the control of an entity people liked to call the "Sakura Zaibatsu," which happened to be the main financial contributor to the school, and whose CEO most generously elected to pay Sakura's tuition as thanks for the Haruno family's cooperation and business agreement. As such, Haruno Sakura was one of the more proletarian members of the Hakkoukan community in terms of demeanor, but her excellence in Physiology and Medicinal Studies earned her a reputation as one of the medical geniuses of the school, which made her unrefined behavior much less significant in the eyes of the _highly_ critical student body.

Her medical experience, however, did not stop her from whacking Naruto on the head with a textbook when he got close enough to do so.

"Do you HAVE to be SO loud!" she yelled at him. She would never admit it, but her life wouldn't be quite the same (or quite as enjoyable) without Naruto in it to remind her that not everyone was absolutely prim and proper. His seemingly boundless energy and peculiar behavior reminded her that not everyone in the world was absolutely prim and proper, and the occasional "Judo lessons" she gave him were a good way to get rid of stress.

"Owwww! " He shouted back, rubbing his head where the book had hit it. "What was that for!"

"For being unnecessarily loud!" she said, standing in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"Aren't you the one yelling at me?" Naruto responded defiantly. "Besides, don't you think it would be easier to get a boyfriend if you were more ladylike and not putting me in a headlock right now OW OW OW IT'S GONNA BREAK I'M GONNA DIE CAN'T BREATHE OW OW OW!"

Meanwhile, Sasuke was still sitting on the edge of the planter around where Naruto had ditched him, watching their antics with perfect, almost rehearsed apathy, but as he sighed and shook his head, if one paid close attention one could see the slightest of smiles creep onto his face. He would never admit it to anyone (often not even to himself), but Naruto and Sakura were his best friends. Unlike almost everyone else around him, neither Naruto nor Sakura had any ulterior motives or hidden agendas (especially ones that involved indirectly establishing a relationship with his family for the benefit of their own). They were living their lives and not trying to force their way into his, and that brought him incredible peace of mind.

Of course, he would never admit that to anyone, so he remained where he was, watching them in the periphery of his vision…And he noticed that he was not the only one watching them…

∞ 曲 ∞

"What did you say about getting a boyfriend!" Sakura asked Naruto, still not having let him out of the headlock.

Naruto spoke quickly. "OW OW OW I SAID YOU'RE A VERY PRETTY LADY AND THERE'S NO REASON YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE A BOYFRIEND BY NOW NOW LET ME GO I'M GONNA DIE!"

Finally, Sakura let Naruto have his head back. "Good. That's what I thought you said."

"He's not wrong, you know."

Sakura turned around quickly and found the source of the comment. "Sakurai-san!"

Naruto, holding his head up with his hands for fear that it would fall off otherwise, looked over to the person who had joined them. There didn't seem to be much anything special about him. He was a young man of average height and build, with slightly long brown hair and brown eyes…all in all, his appearance was pretty normal. The only things that stood about him were the cherry blossom-shaped pin on his uniform jacket, and the way his presence made Sakura drop everything, pay attention, and act proper.

"So, is there anyone you're seeing?" he asked.

Sakura averted her eyes and blushed a bit. "Not…at the moment, no."

"Is that so?" he responded in what seemed to be genuine surprise. "An honest shame. I feel like quite a few of the young men around here could use an outgoing young lady like you in their lives, and you yourself aren't unattractive in any sense."

Sakura fidgeted a bit. "I wouldn't go _that_ far…"

Naruto, still holding his head, was watching with amazement. To him, a flustered Sakura was either a hallucination or sign of the apocalypse. Just as he started to think about it, however, the bell sounded out across the campus and stopped him.

"Ah, well," the cherry blossom man said to them after checking his pocket watch. "I'd love to stay, but we all have somewhere to be. I'll see you both tonight at the performance."

He turned and began to leave, but stopped and looked back for a moment.

"Oh, and…Uzumaki-san, I'm sure it's safe to let go of your head now."

And with that, he was off.

Naruto slowly removed his hands from his head, still very confused. "...Who WAS that_?_"

"What do you mean 'who was that'? That was Sakurai Shuugo!" Sakura answered as she started walking as well, Naruto following closely.

"…Okay?"

Sakura sighed an exasperated sigh. "The Hakkoukan student body president. _Baka._"

"OH RIGHT! I _KNEW_ he looked familiar somehow!"

As they passed by the planter upon which Sasuke was still seated, he rejoined the group as well as the conversation, looking at Naruto most unamusedly. "Nice job being awake for the opening ceremonies."

"Shut up, _teme._ They were boring anyway."

"But you don't deny being asleep?"

As they rounded a corner and started toward the music building, Naruto completely forgot his retort and slowed to a halt behind the other two.

"…you guys…you guys go on ahead."

They both turned around, and Sakura spoke up. "Huh? What's up?"

Naruto was momentarily without enthusiasm, which caught Sakura and Sasuke off-guard. However, no one outside of Naruto himself and the music director Masuda-sensei knew that he'd been removed from the performance. Still, he wasn't one to worry people, so he quickly re-adopted his usual demeanor.

"Nothin', I'm just gonna hit the restroom," he said with a smile, turning and walking off.

"You're gonna be late!" Sakura called out to him.

He gave the both of them a thumbs-up as he kept walking, and they all went their ways.

At the moment, though, Naruto didn't have a destination in mind. He just walked.

* * *

FOOTNOTES  
*Mitarashi Dango: Dango with soy sauce syrup. Delicious.  
**Shiruko: Azuki and Red Bean soup. Also delicious.


	6. AN: Theft

When the laptop you write your stories on is stolen, it makes it hard to keep writing.

Unless you write your things on paper first like I do. HA!

NOT EVEN COMPUTER THEFT CAN STOP THE SHOW.

That said, I'll have to retype a lot of stuff that I was planning to upload all at once,

so bear with me as I do that again.

Peace and love.

-The Virtuous Seraph-


End file.
